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ICSE
2001
IEEE-ACM

Functional Paleontology: System Evolution as the User Sees It

13 years 8 months ago
Functional Paleontology: System Evolution as the User Sees It
It has long been accepted that requirements analysis should precede architectural design and implementation, but in software evolution and reverse engineering this concern with black-box analysis of function has necessarily been de-emphasized in favor of code-based analysis and designer-oriented interpretation. In this paper, we redress this balance by describing "functional paleontology", an approach to analyzing the evolution of user-visible features or services independent of architecture and design intent. We classify the benefits and burdens of interpersonal communication services into core and peripheral categories and investigate the telephony services available to domestic subscribers over a fifty-year period. We report that services were introduced in discrete bursts, each of which emphasized different benefits and burdens. We discuss the general patterns of functional evolution that this "fossil record" illustrates and conclude by discussing their implica...
Annie I. Antón, Colin Potts
Added 30 Jul 2010
Updated 30 Jul 2010
Type Conference
Year 2001
Where ICSE
Authors Annie I. Antón, Colin Potts
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